


million moonflake memories

by drilbur



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Astronaut Mark Lee, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Space Stations, Valentine's Day Fluff, homosexual origami making
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29413545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drilbur/pseuds/drilbur
Summary: valentine's day: courtesy of nasa, houston.
Relationships: Mark Lee/Xiao De Jun | Xiao Jun
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	million moonflake memories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starsnatched](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsnatched/gifts).



> totally unbeta-ed so forgive me for any mistakes! just wanted to wish my girlfriend a super happy valentine's day <3 thank you for existing, i love you so much :D
> 
> please pretend that spacecrafts have gravity inducing mechanisms on board now, thank you ;__;

“requesting communication to houston, this is vellux-1301 on orbit. pilot lee on call here, requesting connection to doctor xiao dejun on account of personal matters?” mark sighs after pressing the button on the panel for too long, the pads of his fingers turn pink as he hesitantly waits for the line to respond back. the rest of his crew has gone to sleep now, lights all dimmed out and gravity set to comfortable levels. the air conditioning isn’t quite the best, it pricks the exposed skin on his knees but the simple rush of blood from the thought of talking to his boyfriend again, brings him to life. the control panel is the only thing that shines brightly in the station, and mark blinks rapidly to allow himself to get used to the feeling.

the control panel suddenly then blinks with a green light signalling him that there was incoming communication and while his hands move rapidly to press the button that will allow him to talk, he wonders if dejun has changed at all between their last conversation on earth, almost two months ago. dejun had kissed him goodbye by personally making sure he sat well inside the spacecraft, putting on the cautionary belts for him, and slipping a dainty gold ring that had the initials _XDJ_ printed on the inside onto his palm. and of course, he had gotten himself a matching one, with mark’s initials carved perfectly into his own.

“today’s the 12th of december, markie. and i think, i _really_ think you should call me on valentine’s day if you still haven’t forgotten about me by then,” dejun had said, nonchalantly while carefully unfolding mark’s palm and placing the pretty little golden band into the white suit that covered his hands. dejun had laughed at how mark’s breaths had fogged up on the glass of his helmet while staring at him and mark had just simply nodded in promise while clutching the small ring tightly under his heavily padded grip. “you’re stupid if you think i’ll forget about you in two months from now, xiao dejun.” mark had said, his muffled voice hitting the confines of his helmet.

“well, i’m just being sure! you know how the view from space is, people fall in love with it and suffer from withdrawal symptoms after they get back like they were on drugs or something. the sun is very pretty, after all.” dejun had said, wiping mark’s visor with a cloth and making sure his suit was functioning properly.

“i can’t even see colors from the vellux, babe. sunrises and sunsets won’t be the same.”

“then i guess you’ll fall in love with the moon,”

“why can’t i be in love with you _and_ also fall in love with the moon?” dejun had laughed, the sound trickling into mark’s ears and he wanted to somehow trap it all in a box and take it with him to the abyss of space and listen to it when he’s truly alone — just him and the coldness of the unknown to keep him company.

“are you saying you’re going to cheat on me, pilot lee? abysmal!”

mark clicks the button hesitantly, slipping into the seat with a huff and biting his lip in anxiety. the static in the connection brings him full force to reality — it’s the 14th of february and it’s a sunday and mark hopes and prays to god he didn’t just take an off today.

“this is houston to vellux-1301 on orbit. communication to doctor xiao dejun will be established in t-minus 1 minute, pilot lee. would you like a private line?”

“yes, please. thank you.” and then the line goes blank for a while. mark takes the time to nervously stomp his feet on the steel flooring of the vellux, his shoes making the sound even more unbearable.

“lee! keep it down!” comes a voice from inside their sleeping chambers. renjun had always been a light sleeper, his sleep pattern the most erratic out of them all but mark stops it for the sake of him getting some well deserved sleep.

one minute seems so slow even in space. technically, it should. t-minus one minute but it actually feels like t-minus eternity and he’s waited for two whole months to call dejun and honest to god, mark feels like he will evaporate away like he’s been exposed to the sun, bare and beautiful the minute he hears dejun’s voice.

the panel lights up green again and mark knows the drill now, he just simply needs to press a button and he’d be taken to the moment back in december. he fiddles with the golden band around his ring finger before pressing the button that threateningly glowed red.

“hello?”

dejun’s voice is just as sweet as he last remembers it — the way he swallowed his l’s when he talked, the lilt to his voice as he finished his sentences and a little contained laughter emanating from the one word alone. mark feels right at home in the small space junk, thousands of miles away from earth.

“this is doctor xiao dejun in communication to vellux-1301. who am i speaking to?”

“so, you’re the one who’s forgotten about me.” mark says. the line stays silent for a while. mark wonders if he fucked up.

mark hears a hushed “what’s the fucking time on the vellux right now?” that dejun hurriedly whisper-shouts to his colleague beside him.

“it’s 1:06 AM right now, junnie. but it’s the 14th here and i still haven’t forgotten about you for some reason.” mark hears the hitched breaths that cloud the line, and chuckles to himself.

“you’re telling me that you managed to keep yourself from falling in love with the moon? how is that even possible?” dejun laughs into the mic, just like he did the last time. maybe, mark didn’t have to box it up and bring it to space after all, he feels like his brain will remember this sound, this feeling, forever. mark laughs alongside him, their laughter melding into one.

“i missed you, markie.” dejun says after the laughter dies down, and mark has to physically stop his heart from running miles and threatening to jump out of his body.

“i missed you too, junnie. how are you?”

“i’m going to pretend i haven’t been looking forward to this day since the 13th of december like it’s my birthday or something. but yes, i’m doing very well, pilot lee. how about you? are you drinking enough water and eating enough solids? are your bowel movements good? are you taking your vitamins? are you wearing your glasses often? i don’t want to you to go blind by the time you get back here—”

“junnie! i’m good, i swear. i’m doing great and it’s a yes to all of your questions, baby.” mark smiles to himself as the line crackles between them again as dejun quietly listens to the sound of mark’s breathing.

“you sound so. i don’t know, cuter or something when you’re thousands of miles away from me,”

“ahem, do i sound sexier now?” mark grumbles and changes his voice to sound more deeper but all dejun does is laugh again like it’s the best thing he’ll ever do.

“you sound like you just woke up. reminds me of your stinky, stinky morning breath, jesus.” mark frowns cutely, suppressing a smile as he bites down on his bottom lip.

“is this how you flirt with me on valentine’s day, babe? c’mon, you need to try harder.”

“right! valentine’s day. i actually made a playlist for you to listen to! i’ll see to sending you the link after johnny approves of it, markie. somehow they’ve made the already strict rules even stricter,” dejun says, his voice now a bit bitter. “but! i think you’ll like the playlist, yeah. you should like the playlist.”

“a playlist? fuck.”

“what? is that not quirky enough for you, pilot lee?” dejun chuckles.

“babe, please don’t be disappointed but my present isn’t exactly like. the best?” mark tries, but fails to make his voice sound like he’s serious. dejun just hums on the other end of the line. mark leans back on the seat, stretching his legs out.

“so, you _do_ have a present, huh? nice. i thought you’d bail just because you’re doing hot girl shit, being in space and all.” mark bursts into laughter at that, to which he earns another tired groan from renjun at the end of the hall.

“well. i watched a youtube tutorial on how to make origami hearts! and i thought i could make them with you?” mark glances nervously at the pink sheets and a ruler placed neatly on the seat next to his own.

“like, right now?” he could imagine dejun looking around at the rest of his colleagues and researchers, probably even the interns who were always very curious about mark and dejun’s relationship.

“yeah, right now. do you have some paper lying around?” the voice flutters around for a bit but mark hears dejun tell someone to pass him a sheet of paper.

“got it. i can’t believe i’m actually doing this.”

“okay, so you’ve got to have a square shaped paper for this so if it’s a rectangle, make it into a square, junnie. bonus points, if it’s pink.” mark grabs the already cut out square sheets and waits for dejun to do the same.

“markie, i have a square shaped sticky note, will that work?” mark hums as if he’s thinking.

“well, i was planning to frame these two hearts after i come back down, so if you wanna put a sticky note heart in the frame, go ahead.” mark smiles smugly as dejun goes silent again, sputtering for words.

“god, i forgot that you’re like, insane. tch, always so over the top, pilot lee.” mark chuckles under his breath and folds a crease in the middle just as he remembered it.

“so, first you gotta fold in the middle and make a crease and then fold it back out and then you rotate it and fold it the same way again.” mark explains, as he does it.

“huh?”

“like, fold it in the middle, take it out and then turn it around and do the same thing.” dejun sighs and mark imagines his thick eyebrows furrowed, focusing with all his might to follow mark’s instructions to the tee.

“babe, do you wanna switch to video? i’ll ask taeyong to do it.” mark wonders why he didn’t just video call right from the beginning. maybe, he wasn’t the smartest in the practically useful department but he was trying his best, alright. the video was going to be a bit laggy but mark would jump off the spacecraft to see dejun’s face again, right now. he basically vibrates in his seat before humming a yes and turns on the monitor beside him. a few minutes pass before mark connects to the internet provided by nasa and waits for dejun to request to switch to a video call.

the first thing he notices is that dejun has his hair a striking black color now, and his fringes fall so delicately onto the sides of his eyebrows, framing his face in a look that mark is probably going to remember forever.

“you—your hair is black.” mark says, as a matter of fact and dejun smiles so deliciously, eyes crinkling and pretty. god, how he’s missed this.

“and you’re still a dirty brunette, pilot lee.” he watches dejun chuckle under his breath before adjusting his camera and covering his face with a groan.

“god, i look so bad!” dejun exclaims with a loud shriek.

“mark! if you don’t tell your scientist boyfriend to keep it down, i will end him myself and then no more valentine’s days for the both of you!” renjun sounds serious this time and dejun sits up, bewildered. mark quickly yells out a sorry and fumbles around to get his earphones and plug it in quickly.

“he’s a feisty one, isn’t he?” dejun chuckles, as he moves closer and places his head on the heel of his palm.

“nah, he’s just mad that his favorite netflix show got taken down and he practically has nothing to watch during leisure hours. oh! that reminds me, i watched that movie you kept talking about before i left. one day, that anne hathaway movie? i hated it.” dejun’s face morphs from happiness to a frown in a second and mark feels like he’ll incinerate himself at the intensity of dejun’s gaze, even under the shitty camera.

“what! you know i don’t like it when the main characters die!” mark says in an attempt to defend himself.

“very shitty of you to say that about your lover’s favorite movie to them on valentine’s day, pilot lee.” dejun deadpans and mark raises his arms up in surrender.

“hey well, let’s uh, make these hearts!” mark waves the pink sheet of paper in front of the camera before dejun simply succumbs and waves his own sticky note set, mirroring mark.

“as i was saying, you fold them in between,” and mark shows him how to do it this time, he’d watched this tutorial about ten times before actually trying it so that he’d remember better and not make a fool out of himself when he actually called dejun. and now that he’s here, mark can’t help but feel like he’ll forget everything he’s ever remembered, staring into the crispy image of dejun, as he pulls up his sweater vest and makes the best effort to follow mark’s directions.

mark does it alongside him, showing him the way, holding his hand just like dejun did, during the first few months of their relationship where mark was the one who was clueless and inexperienced when it came to actually dating people. a few minutes pass and he recognizes a few people passing by dejun’s seat, curiously wondering what he was doing with a bunch of sticky notes with his boyfriend on call. it’s a simple tutorial and that was what drew mark in, compelling him to try this out with dejun, no matter how childish it sounded but he’s sure it’s something that they’ll both cherish in a few years when they see it hanging in a nice little wooden frame in their family home, probably with a kid on mark’s hip, showing them what their daddies did on a valentine’s day when they couldn’t be with each other physically.

dejun tells mark what he would’ve done for valentine’s day if he was still on earth during this time and the plans are much more extravagant than what dejun is always used to and he has always had his comfort zones — the ahjumma’s place that served dak kalguksu near their house, the same brand of coffee he buys for the both of them even though they both knew it tasted like shit, the torn rug that dejun refused to throw out even though he’s had it for more than nine years. dejun tells him that he would’ve booked them both reservations at the four seasons at the rooftop, weeks before the date and that he would’ve paid the bill before the dessert and taken mark out for some cheap ice-creams at their local dairy shop to which mark laughs.

“you’d only do that because four seasons wouldn’t serve you mint chocolate.” and dejun laughs at that like mark had nailed it. mark makes the final fold at the back of the origami, folding out the edges to shape the heart and dejun eagerly follows along.

“there! now turn it around,” dejun blinks dazedly and turns the origami to see a perfectly good, yellow colored heart that he made himself.

“good job! do you like it?” mark leans into the camera, till his eyes are the only thing that could be seen and dejun wrinkles face.

“i like it, it’s very profound. so, i’m gonna keep this safely and you should too, since you want to frame these things when you come back,”

“mhm, will do, doctor xiao. got some pictures of the moon yesterday, do you want to see?” dejun eagerly nods and clasps his hands in anticipation, waiting for mark to retrieve his camera from his cabin.

“see, i told you you’d fall in love with the moon,”

“i was already in love with you, angel.” mark watches dejun slap his forehead with absolute glee as he laughs at himself for the cheesy line. he shows him the pictures from the little digital viewer and dejun looks at it with absolute awe, taking in the prussian blue of the earth’s atmosphere as it fades into the inky outer space that surrounds the moon in its waxing crescent phase.

“i don’t blame you at all, it must be wonderful.” dejun says slowly, eyes still affixed onto the pictures mark showed him and mark smiles warmly.

“junnie… i’ve thought about it a lot and… i want to get engaged to you when i come back.” mark says, eyes shy and wandering. his hands fidget nervously as he waits for dejun to say something who is finally yanked out of the trance that the moon put him in.

“babe. you’re already engaged to me, silly. you probably want me to start planning the wedding, huh?” dejun asks, confused. and mark is even more confused than he is.

“wait. don’t tell me you thought these rings were some testimony to our bromance or something! this was my engagement to you!” dejun exclaims.

yeah, no, mark finally gets it. he finally remembers the time back in december, aboard the shuttle, strapping up the passengers as dejun had tried his best to grab hold of his left hand and push the golden band onto his ring finger which he couldn’t at the time because of his stupid ass suit. it all made sense now — the longing stare before dejun deboarded, the promise, the initials on the band. mark feels like he’s been hit with a truckload of emotions all at once.

“uh, of course not! i was going to say get married to you but my brain… you know how it is,” dejun simply smiles and waves the origami heart around.

“i’d love to get married to you, pilot lee. want to go on dates with you, raise kids with you, buy cute clothes for our kids with you, do budgeting with you, grow old with you… yeah, i have it all planned out. now, if you could just come back to earth, markie, i’d be grateful.” dejun says it so earnestly that mark feels a tear prick his eye as he forces himself to smile through it and wipe it off with the back of his hand.

he sniffles, “for real?” mark asks.

“yeah, for real, you crybaby. you’re sure as hell easy to break for a person who made it into space,” dejun jokes again and mark’s already started counting the days before he can step foot on earth again, with dejun and their future the only thing in his mind.

he hears taeyong from the off-side telling him to cut the call because johnny was about to walk into the cabin room and mark pouts.

“babe? i gotta go but i’ll request another call in a week, okay? you take care and stay safe. tell me if these motherfuckers are making you do something impossible, i’ll fly you out myself!” mark bursts into giggles at that and holds up his origami heart and smiles impossibly wide. dejun laughs at his cute pose and follows suit before muttering an audible “i love you, markie.” into his headphones and waving him goodbye and the line cuts off before mark can finish his reciprocation.

“communication from houston to vellux-1301 has now ended. duration of call, thirty nine minutes and forty four seconds. anything else, pilot lee?” the voice sounds placid in his head now and it was thirty nine minutes of pure bliss. mark gets back to his cabin where renjun sleeps soundly now, comforter pulled up fully. he thinks about the sound of dejun’s voice in his ears and avidly stares at the initials etched into the band he’s worn for two months before he drifts to sleep.

when mark sleeps, he dreams about building his home with dejun on the moon itself and it works out perfectly in his head.

**Author's Note:**

> there are so many factual inaccuracies here and i know nothing about how nasa spacecrafts actually work and communicate but ¯\\(°_o)/¯ it's just an ao3 fic ig?? [here](https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/thumbnails/image/iss061e112503.jpg) is the moon as it looks from the vellux!
> 
> anyways, thank you for reading :D drop a kudos/comment if you liked it!  
> [twt](https://twitter.com/emberhit)


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